Tune in to WFBR 1590 AM for a live interview this Thursday, March 5th @1-2pm with Mama Tomiko Shine, Editor of the new book authored by Ancestor and longtime prisoners’ activist Abdul Jabbar Caliph, Organizing and Rebuilding the African Working Class through Pan-Africanism and Socialism.
Baba Abdul Jabbar Caliph’s essays, letters and other communications pertaining to the struggle of America’s Political Prisoners, Prisoners of War and Aging Prisoners are compiled and organized in this book that provides an important glimpse into the struggle for justice in the United States prison system as well as the tireless and often thankless work that has been and is still being done by activists such as Baba Abdul Jabbar Caliph and carried on today by Mama Tomiko Shine and her organization Aging People in Prison Human Rights Campaign (APPHRC).
Information on the Radio Broadcast: 1:00-2:00 PM Eastern Time WFBR 1590 AM in Baltimore City https://tunein.com/radio/WFBR-1590AM-Baltimore-s29972/ Call in no. 410-761-1592
There will also be a Book Discussion and Signing on Saturday, March 21st from 1-3pm at the following location: Little Africa HQ 741 Dolphin Street Baltimore, MD 21217
Refreshments will be available.
For further information call Baba John at 443-531-2817.
February 15, 2020, 5:00 – 11:00 PM Our Victorious City Emerald Dinner Great Blacks In Wax Museum, 1601 E. North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21213
Our Victorious City (OVC) was established in honor of Victorious Khan Swift, a very charismatic, creative and committed youth leader in Baltimore City who was tragically snatched from the living world on March 26, 2017, by an armed robber. Ironically, his assailant was likely one of the people he fought for along with other strong Pan-Afrikan activists in the long, often painful and usually thankless struggle for truth and justice on the streets of Baltimore City.
Victorious Khan Swift’s 22nd Earth Day (Birthday) would have been this coming February 17. Every year, in his honor, his mother, community organizer and Elder Mama Victory Swift, organizes the Emerald Dinner, which is held at the Historic Great Blacks In Wax Museum in East Baltimore. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, February 15.
Mama Victory Swift, Founder and Chairperson of Our Victorious City, offers these comments on her Facebook page:
“Party for a great cause! It is our pleasure to invite you to be a part of our 2020 celebration of Our Victorious City 3rd Annual Emerald Dinner & Dance to be held on Saturday, February 15, 2020, at The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum from 5 pm -11 pm Located at 1601 E. North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21213. Included is a Museum tour from 5 pm – 6 pm. An OVC T-shirt is included per tickets/donations of $100.00 or more. The fundraiser is for the Victorious K. Swift Scholarship Funds and Our Victorious City Educator of the Year Scholarship. Scholarships will also honor and remember the lives of Councilman Kenneth Harris and Tariq Sharif Alston.
“The celebration will include: *Dinner *Dancing *Raffle *Silent Auction *Dress to impress a semi-formal affair.”
Be sure to check this site’s Events Calendar, as well as subsequent posts, for other Pan-Afrikan events as they are announced to us.
If your organization is sponsoring a Pan-Afrikan event that it would like to see announced on KUUMBAReportOnline, please be sure to contact us at cliff@kuumbareport.com.
January 18, 2020, 1:00 – 4:00 PM Maryland Council of Elders Town Hall on the Industrial Police Intelligence Complex (IPIC) Harlem Park Recreation Center, 700 N, Calhoun Street, Baltimore, MD
The Maryland Council of Elders (MCOE) was founded in January 2018 after members of the grassroots community nominated several Elders at a public Town Hall Meeting to provide guidance and critical information on key issues impacting People of Afrikan Descent in the State of Maryland and Baltimore City. The MCOE has taken on that role with an understanding of the seriousness of the situation our people face. Thus, the MCOE has sponsored or co-sponsored several community Town Hall Meetings since 2018, the most recent of which were the October 12 Town Hall Meeting on Violence in the Community and several commemorations of the Kwanzaa Holiday. Now, the MCOE has taken on the issue of what they refer to as the Industrial Police Intelligence Complex (IPIC).
“The Maryland Council of Elders is increasingly alarmed by a system that is designed to harass, displace and criminalize our people and the communities we live in. We will discuss Policing in Baltimore, the School-to-Prison Pipeline and plans to criminalize, incarcerate and kill Black People, immigrants and the poor and War.”
The event will be held Saturday, January 18 from 1 to 4 PM at the Harlem Park Recreation Center, 700 N. Calhoun Street in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information, contact the Maryland Council of Elders at (410) 419-2999; (202) 628-6884; (443) 253-2643; by email at MarylandCouncilofEldersBmore@gmail.com; or on Facebook at “Maryland Council of Elders”.
Be sure to check this site’s Events Calendar, as well as subsequent posts, for other Pan-Afrikan events as they are announced to us.
If your organization is sponsoring a Pan-Afrikan event that it would like to see announced on KUUMBAReportOnline, please be sure to contact us at cliff@kuumbareport.com.
The 12th International Summit of the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) was held on Friday and Saturday, October 25 and 26, 2019, at the International Longshoremen’s Association Hall in Charleston, South Carolina. This was the same location as the 2010 International Summit the last time it was held here. The weekend was ably organized by the South Carolina Organizing Committee of SRDC.
Members and organizational allies came from California, Washington State, Maryland, South Carolina, Central America (via New York), Belize, The Gambia and Liberia. We thank the South Carolina SRDC Organization for planning and organizing a course-defining conference and creating a welcoming environment for the attendees.
The first day, Friday afternoon, began with a Tambiko or Libation ceremony, in which the attendees invoke the Creator, the different manifestations of the Creator (Orisha, Nsamamfo, Netcheru, and other subordinate Afrikan spiritual Ancestral deities analogous to the Archangels of Protestantism and the Patron Saints of Catholicism), and the Honored Ancestors of our families and of the global Black Struggle against oppression and toward the unity and uplift of Afrikan People. Names were invoked such as the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Harriet Tubman, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Steve Biko, Sojourner Truth, Henry Sylvester Williams, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Shirley Chisholm, Jomo Kenyatta, Amilcar Cabral, Fannie Oou Hamer, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Sankara, Malcolm X, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Yvette Colvin, Rosa Parks and so many others. The purpose is for the positive energy and spirit that imbued these Honored Ancestors would continue to inspire us to carry on with their historic and mighty work on behalf of Afrikan People.
At the conclusion of the outdoor ceremony, the attendees took their seats inside the spacious hall of the International Longshoremen’s Association, a Black association of the longshoremen and dock workers who have helped make Charleston a valuable port on the east coast of the United States. The Charleston longshoremen had participated in the shipping of relief supplies to The Bahamas in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Dorian earlier in the year, and will figure prominently in efforts to ensure the safe transport of important goods and services to Afrika as the Diaspora’s connection to our ancestral home becomes stronger and stronger.
Once seated inside the International Longshoremen’s Hall, the Summit’s program officially began.
The theme of this year’s Summit was “21st Century Pan-Afrikanism”, and included a panel discussion on that topic on the second day. The signature achievement of the Summit, or as SRDC’s International Facilitator, Professor David L. Horne, defines our task now as “doing something and not just talking about it”, was the commencement of the process of planning and building the first public library in Liberia’s history. We have featured an introductory article about this project on this Web site, which can be read here. You can read about the concrete steps that were taken at the Summit to get the library project underway, to begin “doing something”, here.
This article will feature the opening remarks from SRDC’s South Carolina Facilitator, Bro. Kumasi Palmer; the Director of the Liberian advocacy organization Sehwah, Sis. Louise Siaway; and SRDC’s International Facilitator, Professor David L. Horne.
Kumasi Palmer, South Carolina Facilitator, SRDC
The SRDC South Carolina team consisted of Facilitator Bro. Kumasi Palmer and Organizing Committee members Bro. Fred Lincoln, Sis. Deborah Wright, Evangelist Patricia Wright and a number of local activists, with direct ties to the local Charleston community as well as the Geechie-Gullah communities that inhabit the coastal areas and the barrier islands of South Carolina. Bro. Kumasi introduced us to the weekend’s activities and stressed the on-the-ground emphasis of SRDC.
“Welcome to Charleston, a historical town. We are here, talking about us. We’re here from South Carolina, from North America, from South America, the Caribbean, Central America, and the Afrikan Continent. This whole program is revolving around us, and our work to reconnect to Afrika. We have a number of folk from the Continent of Afrika itself. We have on the program an organization called Sehwah, which is located in Liberia, being led by Ms. Louise Siaway.
“SRDC is … a Pan-Afrikan organization … that is where we are headed as a people worldwide, getting together globally. We need to become a global people. When we become a global people, then we develop power and influence. The problems in America, the problems in the Caribbean, the problems in Central America where our people are located, will never be resolved until Afrika is free, independent and powerful as a base. That’s been understood historically by Marcus Garvey, it was understood historically by Kwame Nkrumah, by and also Malcolm X. They were always saying we have to have a base. Afrika is our base, and after we become strong and independent, the world will respect us. It has to be [based on how] we see it. [For a lot of people] who are not here, they don’t understand this concept. We understand it as a strong moral concept, and it’s going to grow.
“Anyway, SRDC, we’ll get more into that as we move forward tonight and tomorrow. It is a Pan-Afrikan organization that has been working diligently to try to bring Afrikan people together worldwide. We do go to the Afrikan Continent. David Horne is our chief facilitator. We’ve been traveling to Brazil, we’ve traveled to Nicaragua, we’ve traveled to Honduras, we’ve connected to the CABO Organization, Central American Black Organization … we’ve been doing that for the last ten years, just hooking people up, and introducing them to Afrika and the concept of coming together as a people globally. … this is what we’ve been doing. And tonight, this is just an introduction to who we are and what we’re all about. And we have a special group of people here tonight, from Liberia, who we have invited. We are working diligently now with an organization called Sehwah, on the Afrikan Continent. And one of our major projects is to build a public library in Liberia. That’s what we’re doing. We’ll talk about that more, but it’s about work, practical Pan-Afrikanism, what can we do together to help build Afrika, and empower Afrikan people around the world.
“With that, I’m going to stop, and get this program going. I’m going to introduce to you the first person who is going to come up to speak to us. As I said there are a number of people with us here tonight. We won’t hear from all of them, but we’re from Seattle, we’re from California, we’re from Maryland, and we’ve got chapters in different parts of the country and we have affiliated organizations in other parts of the world.
“So, we’ve got our Sister right here from Central America, Honduras, Spanish-speaking Afrikan people, Sis. Mirtha Colon, who is here with us tonight, traveling all the way from New York City, where she now lives, but she’s representing the Central American Black Organization, which is the major Black organization in Central America. So we’re connected worldwide. You’re going to hear from some of these folks as we develop our panel discussions in our workshops tomorrow. But right now I want to introduce Sis. Louise Siaway, who is going to come up and give us a few words about who she is, what she’s doing. Louise is the former Minister of Culture in the Liberian government under the [Ellen Johnson Sirleaf] administration. So now she’s working with an organization called Sehwah, and we’re working diligently with her to make this library project a reality. We have collected thousands of books already, and we will collect thousands more. Louise Siaway.”
Ms. Louise Siaway, Director of Sehwah-Liberia
“Thank you. Well, first of all, I would like to introduce my honorable Deputy Secretary of the Liberian Embassy, she is the Minister Counsel. She is the higher authority in the house. Next to her is the director of ACA, that is responsible for the public library in Liberia. We also have the Director for Projects at the National Archives. So, I want to give their names, not just giving their positions, the Honorable Madame Sophia Togba Mawle is our senior government official here in the US. Her reason for being here is that anything that we’re going to do in Liberia will go through her department, her office. It may be a public library. It may be an investment opportunity in Afrika. It begins in Liberia. Because, like Kumasi said, now, for SRDC to have an office on the Continent, it is historically placed in Liberia.
“And I want to say thank you to the SRDC members. We will go into more detail tomorrow, how we begin bridging the gap between us. You are Afrikan-American, I am an Afrikan. We are one.
“So, unity is what I’m going to talk about tomorrow. Unity and connectivity. You see, from here to Afrika is not that far. Afrika is right here, in your community. Your culture, what you eat, are what make you an Afrikan. So when I travel to other countries, from Liberia, into Europe, I’m an Afrikan. If you leave here and go to Europe, you’re an Afrikan. They’re not going to say, ‘Oh, Louise is an Afrikan-Liberian.’ Or, Afrikan-American. You are an Afrikan. So that makes us very unique, and this unity that we started last year, we shall say thank you again to the SRDC Family. The opening of the office in Liberia is the beginning of our relationship, this family and how we come together. And one of the most important things in Afrika is that, it isn’t to just criticize and say ‘Oh, why is it that other foreign people are coming in here and looting our wealth, our natural resources?’ But, it is not them, it’s us. We have one united role. We will be able to make it beneficial of the natural resources in Afrika. Afrika is very rich. It’s not poor. The minerals, the iron ore, the diamonds, the gold, the timber. Once upon a time, Liberia was exporting shrimp, seafood, because we are on the west coast of Afrika. So, business opportunity is huge. It only takes one step, and that’s the step we’ve already taken, last year, March, when we signed the MOU [Memorandum of Understanding], and the [SRDC] office was launched in Liberia. So tomorrow, I will give you mire detail, where we are. I have a responsibility, and my responsibility is to strengthen the relationship between the Diaspora and the African Union. And you will get the report tomorrow, how far we’ve come, and what we have done, on the Continent. Thank you.”
21st Century Pan-Afrikanism Must Be About Building: Remarks from Prof. David L. Horne, Lead Facilitator, SRDC
Prof. Horne was among the original founders of SRDC, and he has served as the organization’s leader since its beginnings in 2006. After years of pushing to establish a voice for the Pan-Afrikan Diaspora in the African Union, SRDC has included a number of practical strategies in our effort to connect the Diaspora to our ancestral home. The following were his comments to officially open the Summit on Friday evening, October 25.
“Good evening. …
“I’m not here to talk about problems. We’ve all got problems. What we don’t have enough of are solutions and projects to solve the problems. They start teaching us in grade school, here’s how to recognize the problems. And some of us even paid attention long enough to find out, after learning to recognize it, how to solve it. Black folk are great problem solvers. … Without having been great problem solvers, we would not be here. They would have taken us out. They have tried to take us out. They are still trying to take us out! We ain’t going nowhere. Whatever you throw at us, we get up, clean up, keep on moving.
“A few years ago, some people said, ‘You know, there are over eighteen thousand public libraries in a small country like Italy.’ Eighteen thousand! In America’s only official colony on the Afrikan Continent, the one that they dropped and now want to talk about, America’s only official colony, Liberia, there is not even one public library. Not one. Now think about what impact that’s having on the education of our children. Our children will take us into the future. And we will have a future. We can complain about what we don’t have in Liberia. Or we can start building. Start moving. So Louise came up with the idea, and I’m a typical Black man, I know how to follow a strong Black woman. She said, You know, we can work this out, cooperate, and do something really unique here. We can build our own library, not go and beg somebody else to do it for us. We can build our own.
“Part of what we’re going to talk about at this conference is building. Last week, as the other part of what we do, we had a Pan African Business and Trade Conference in northern California. It went very well. We had a number of Afrikan visitors, some from Uganda, some from Ghana, some from Nigeria. They wanted to talk about California making arrangements to trade with Afrika. Not just to wait until 45 or someone else says ‘We don’t want to talk to those people’. California has a larger economy than 95% of the countries in the world. And California said that it is ready to start trading directly with the Continent. So we were having this conference, cooperating and learning to engage with each other, and it occurred to me that our Global African comrades who were there — and we’re all Global Afrikans; there are Global Afrikans who live on the Continent and there are Global Afrikans who live right here in South Carolina; we’re all Afrikans; we were born Afrikans, we’ve been Afrikans and we are still Afrikans – but it occurred to me that our Nigerian friends, my South Afrikan friends … woke up every day, knowing that they were Afrikan. Knowing that they were part of a country, part of a land, part of a community. They knew they were Afrikan because they were raised to be Afrikan. I was not born in Afrika. Unfortunately, they took us away. But Afrika was born in me. And because of that connection, my life has a purpose. We are to reconnect each other, and with each other. That young child has to know, has to be taught, that there is nothing wring with Afrika, because that’s you.
“We have some other practical issues that we have to talk about before the end of the conference. … One of the practical ideas that we’re going to talk about is this ideas of the African Union, the real Pan-Afrikan organization that is operating now, hooking up with the Diaspora. We’re supposed to be part of that, we’re supposed to be in the building. We’re supposed to be part of the discussions. Well, they have not really fully allowed that, so we’re going to take it anyway. We’re going to take our place. And one of the ways that we’re going to take our place, because we have to have something worth it, we’ve got to have something in the fight, and simply saying that we want to go back home to Ghana, or go back home to Niger, or go back home to Liberia, is not enough. So what we are demanding and what we are working on is something we call Dual Citizenship, because if these crazy people get too crazy, we’ve got to have someplace else to go. If we want to. There are 250 Diasporans living in Ghana right now who have just been made citizens of Ghana. Without giving up their American passports or Jamaican passports or Trinidadian passports. They’ve got two. They’ve got two. And the [US] State Department, even under 45, is not interfering in the idea of /Dual Citizenship. We now have that on the table, we’re going to win that battle.
“Again, we’re not just talking about what the problem is, but how to solve it. Thank you.”
After Professor Horne’s initial remarks that Friday evening, there were cultural presentations from several locally-connected Afrikan Drumming schools, who performed drum and dance routines for the assembled guests based on traditions from Afrikan and the nearby Geechie-Gullah communities.
On the morning of Saturday, October 26, Prof. Horne again called the Summit to order and introduced the topic for the panel discussion on 21st Century Pan-Afrikanism that would be taken up later that afternoon:
“Welcome to Charleston. This has been an agricultural community, a fishing community. It’s fine to get up in the morning and say that you’re going fishing and you plan to bring back stuff that you can sell at the market, but if you come back and your nets are empty, you have no fish to take to the community, then you’re just talking. You’re wishing. You’re hoping.
“Now, we’ve all been through personal situations, we’ve all been through very public, nasty situations as the forces of the world try to keep us back, and we’ve talked about we need to change stuff, we need to move beyond this, we need to do something.
“Black people have been talking about doing something longer than we’ve been here. And in Charleston, in South Carolina, even though we’ve done this big project, the 1619 Project, beautiful work, New York Times spent a lot of money on it, but part of it’s not true. Slavery did not begin in Jamestown in 1619. Those were not the first Afrikans brought to this country. They started in Charleston before they started in Jamestown. And they were already in Florida before the English ever brought anybody Black here. But again, that’s a way of trying to compact our history to show a kind of narrative that we’ve been here, we’ve survived, we have been able to overcome all of the things they’ve put on us and that’s fine. But it’s time to do something about where we are. We have to be able to show up with, ‘Here’s our project. Here’s how we’re going to change it. Here’s how we’re going to get something that’s not already here.’
“When the National African American Museum got produced, organized and put together, mainly by Lonnie Bunche, he started with an idea that most people told him would never work. You can’t get this done. Number one, it’s just you. You’re just one poor Black man who has some experience doing libraries, but you don’t; who are you? You’re not the president. You’re not a big bank. You’re not a big dog. What are you bringing to the table? How can you, a single Black man, create a museum that can speak for all Afrikan Americans? How can you even dream of doing that? But guess what? He did it. Against all odds, he did it, and White people fought him tooth and nail. They did not want him to use that land. That land was supposed to be special, for them only. And they fought him tooth and nail over that. But he got some support, even from some Southern racists, and some other people, and he got the museum built. Now, some people who did not participate in getting it built are trying to slowly tear it down, or bring some criticism to it which will make it no longer feel worthy. There are some of us who recognize Kwanzaa, the process that we celebrate towards the end of the year. There are some people in DC who said that the National African American Museum should have a special place for Kwanzaa. ‘You need to have an exhibit space, you need to make more of a presentation about how important it was. How dare you have a National Afrikan American Museum and not have Kwanzaa?’ Well, the people in charge if the museum said ‘well, that was not our idea, we’re not going to do it.’ So we now have some Black folk talking about doing a protest movement. Black folk protesting their own story. Talking about marching out in front of the Museum. Silly!
“I just got a call this morning from our representative in Guadeloupe and Martinique. Most of you know Line because she comes to most all of our Conferences. She said a French representative, somebody working in president Macron’s office, just came to visit Guadeloupe this week, and brought with him this young man called Louis Tin, who is now representing himself as the Prime Minister of the Diaspora, which means nothing. He can’t be the Prime Minister of air. He needs some territory, he needs some property. But he’s going around the world representing himself as the Prime Minister of us. He didn’t ask us, we didn’t elect him to anything, but he is putting his name out and his personage out, representing that. We had a quick discussion about that last night. Line was concerned that the French are coming up with an approach toward Pan-Afrikanism to make sure they keep it confused. To keep us fighting over non-issues. Sis. Maisha [Washington, Maryland Council of Elders] was telling me last night, we don’t need to fall for the hype. We don’t need to get distracted and go chase the mouse down the hole, down the rabbit hole. But we need to understand that Pan-Afrikanism is working in this world and in our countries, and there are people who will fight tooth and nail to kill it. They have no interest in Afrikan people uniting. None. Afrikan presidents, Afrikan countries, who we don’t always think of as being brilliant or being servants of the people, we sometimes think they are only in it for the money. Some of them are. But you have these 55 heads of Afrika who make decisions for the African Union. They, and us, were never taught that we were supposed to work together. That we are supposed to see other Afrikans and think that we can get something done, not just something to talk about but something done. These 55 Afrikan leaders were never supposed to be able to overcome their own selfishness and agree to a Continental Free Trade pact. That we are going to trade with each other first, before the Commonwealth, before the EU, before the French. We have come to, as Afrikans, grow, produce and trade together first, then with them. There is absolutely no love from those who are used to telling us what to do for that kind of agreement. ‘How dare you make that common agreement! How dare you come together. You all are not supposed to do that!’
“It’s doing, it’s moving forward, which is what we’re about. The Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus was created in response to the invitation that the African Union made to the Diaspora to come back home, to come back and join this effort to build a union, to build a coming-back-together, to build something that the world has not seen. The Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus has been at this for a few years. This is our twelfth annual conference. We’ve done a lot of talking. Had a lot of meetings. We are now on the road to Let’s Do Something! Let’s demonstrate what we mean by getting something tangible done. We need to see a building, we need to see a car, we need to see a boat, we need to see something! Touch something. The African American Museum, you can go knock on the wall. You can go and taste it and touch it, as some people do. They actually try to wrap their arms around the whole building and kiss it. We, as Fred has always said, need to do something. When the hurricane almost took out The Bahamas, there were a bunch of people talking about, ‘That’s so sad. That’s too bad.’ They didn’t need talk. They had had their lived devastated, their homes crushed. They needed help. So Fred said, I can start working on getting something done. Raise some money, get some food, get some stuff that will help them over their crisis.
“So going back to that quick discussion I had with Kumasi a few minutes ago, when it comes down to it, it’s not what you say, it’s what you do. It’s not what you promise, it’s what you put on the table. So, S.R.D.C. in its twelfth year, started working with Sehwah of Liberia, and we opened a joint office in Liberia. You can actually go and see the office. No, it’s not well furnished yet. We’re getting there. We also went and made a presentation to the Liberian government. Liberia is very important to South Carolina. You have a long history of contact with that country. They have iron. They have substance. The agreement between SRDC and Sehwah was You know what? Liberia needs a library. Educational purposes. Have students show up, and have people learn how to read. Reading is a problem in Liberia, I hate to say it. It’s a problem right here too. The problem that we have in South Carolina, the problem that we have in California, the problem that we have in New York, with our folk learning how to read, is nothing, nothing compared to what they have in Liberia. You’re actually seeing fully grown people who cannot read. And it’s not because they’re dumb, they’re not. Nobody ever taught them how to read. A library is where you can go and learn how to read. Have people help you, have people train you. So the position was, we can connect with each other, Liberia back to the Afrikan Diaspora here, and we can build a library. We can do something that most people haven’t even thought about doing. We can and will build a library. And we’re in the process of getting that done now.
“This young lady, Louise Siaway, from Liberia who used to be in the Liberian government, has been a brilliant organizer of getting this done. A few months ago we were just talking about the idea, the she wrote Deborah and me into it and Kumasi into it in August. Now, today, in October, we already have a grant of land. The government has granted two acres of land. Not in the bushes, not in the trees where nobody will find us, but in the pricey part of Monrovia. We got 2 acres of land, the government is basically not going to try to control it. We are in the process of getting a GoFundMe page set up so we can raise our part of the money for the architects, the designers, etc.
“The issue is making sure we do our part, which means that we are going to train the young people in library science to run their own library. We’re not talking about putting up a building for White folks to come and make a showcase, ‘Look at what we did in Liberia, for them!’ No, this is not doing something for them it’s doing something with them. So we’re going to train young people to run their own library. Deborah’s going to be in charge of that, so we’ve got to raise some funds for that too.
“Again, we are doing something. Brother Kamau is working on a project our in Seattle that says you can go and get equipment, computers, ship those to the Afrikan areas that say they can be used for schooling, for teaching, for helping students. We will arrange it, we will ship it, you pay for the shipping, and then you distribute it in your own area. Doing something. Pan-Afrikanism, if it’s not about doing something, it’s not Pan-Afrikanism.
“This conference, starting with this vanguard, is about Pan-Afrikanism as a ‘doing-something’ concept. I can quote Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. I can quote Sekou Toure. I can quote George Padmore. We can talk all day about these leaders who have come and given us important statements and documents to move forward with. But again, that’s not getting it done. That’s talking about getting it done. This is 2019. They are going to impeach and remove a president of this country, not just talk about it, they’re going to do it. We have to show our seriousness in the same way, by moving with a Pan-Afrikanism that’s about doing. So this 12th Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus [Summit] is about doing.
“So we have, here in the vanguard, members of the Central American Black Organization. We have the Deputy Minister from Liberia here to talk about how they are doing. We are here to talk about what they are going to do to participate in the building, indeed, let’s identify projects and get stuff done. Let’s be known by what we do and not by what we say. We have a Brother here from Belize. Belize used to be very, very important and will be important again in Afrikan-American activities. They are not doing enough, yet, but with Brother Hodari, they are going to. We just have to sit down with him and plan and get some stuff done in that area.
“You have to understand, Afrikan people are not going to sit idle and let their land, their people, their culture be taken advantage of here. As I finish this brief introduction, within the next ten years, we have been told that if we don’t do something definitive about climate change, all of the talk is a waste of time. We cannot stop the sun, we cannot stop the change, we cannot stop the weather, it’s just going to get worse. There’ll be more fires in California, they’re going to burn the hell out of California just like they’re doing now, you all are going to be flooded out here. We have about ten years, to either do something, or else it’s just going to be all over. White people are not going to get to Mars in time to have a colony on Mars. They’re not planning on taking us anyway but I don’t think we want to go.
“Within ten years, 60% of the still available land resources on earth will be in Afrika. That means they’re coming back to try to take Afrika again. There’ll be this recolonization going on. They will have burned out their own places, so they’re going to try to come back to Afrika to take that again. Understand, that is already on the horizon, it is already in the planning stages. And the French have either been told or they have decided that they’re going to be the point of the arrow about doing something about that.
“We have to, we have to, we have to, count ourselves as part of the [group] to get stuff done to block any of the people who want to come and rake our land again. We have to be part of building what is necessary. And we’re starting with the library and moving forward to other things.
“As an introduction to the conference, welcome. Again, you are the vanguard, you are the folk who are going to plan what’s going to be happening. Congratulations on your new museum coming in to Charleston in a few months. Hopefully you will not let them tell you what your museum is supposed to be about. Hopefully you will take charge of your own story. Okay, the conference is now open!”
SRDC Local Organizing Committees
Several SRDC local organizations were present at the Summit, as we stated before above. At this time, the attending organizations made their reports on their activities and plans up to this point. Below are brief descriptions of the speakers and brief audio of the various local organizations’ reports.
Sis. Mirtha Colon is the current president of the Central American Black Organization or CABO (in Spanish, the name is Organizacion Negra Centroamericana or ONECA). Born in Honduras and living most of the last several decades in the New York area, Sis. Colon has been a guiding force in CABO for many years, and currently serves as the organization’s president.
These are her remarks as she introduced herself, described the mission of CABO and affirmed her support for SRDC’s work through this Summit:
Mama Maisha Washington is a member of the SRDC Maryland organizing committee as well as a member of the Maryland Council of Elders, which was officially seated at a December 2017 Maryland Pan Afrikan Town Hall Meeting. She is also a teacher and, as such, is helping spearhead the development of an Afrikan Centered Curriculum for Afrikan Diasporans.
Here, Mama Maisha discusses one of the priorities of the Maryland Organization, the building of an Afrikan-Centered Curriculum, which had been espoused at last year’s Summit in Baltimore, Maryland:
Bro. Kamau Taplin is the Washington State SRDC Facilitator, based in Seattle. He has worked with The Gambia to arrange for the transport of surplus furniture and other goods to that Afrikan country. On the ground in Seattle, Bro. Kamau has also helped sponsor a number of cultural and business initiatives in the area.
Bro. Kamau gave an update on the SRDC Washington State organization’s activities:
Bro. Demba Hydara is SRDC’s connection to The Gambia. He has been working with Bro. Kamau Taplin to facilitate and strengthen ties between SRDC and the government and communities in The Gambia. Bro. Demba has attended several SRDC Summits over the past three to four years.
Bro. Demba would also participate in the panel discussion later that afternoon. Here are his comments from the early session:
Bro. Kumasi Palmer is the SRDC South Carolina Facilitator and our gracious host for this year’s Summit. He has been involved in sponsoring youth tours to Afrika, primarily Ghana, where he also owns property, and was the primary initial connection between SRDC and the Liberian organization Sehwah, which, in cooperation with SRDC, is launching the Liberian Library Project.
Bro. Kumasi, who also took part in the panel discussion later in the day, spoke briefly about the South Carolina organization’s activities:
Bro. Fred Lincoln is also from South Carolina, and has worked closely with Bro. Kumasi on SRDC projects. He also took many of the delegates to the Summit on a tour of the area, including a visit to a former plantation site and several settlements that sprang up in the countryside that had been founded by our Honored Ancestors who had endured and survived the horrors of enslavement, post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow to build vibrant, cooperative communities. Here, he gives a little background on that history, as well as efforts of the South Carolina organization to render aid to the communities in The Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian:
Later in the day, the Conference moved on to the specific items on its agenda: the Liberia Library Project and the panel discussion on 21st Century Pan-Afrikanism.
This article gives some details of the agreement between the Liberian grassroots organization known as Sehwah, the African Union, and the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) to proceed with the planning and construction of what will be the first-ever Public Library in Liberia, located on a two-acre plot of land in the capital city of Monrovia. The new library will service the nation-states of Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Conakry.
Statement from Sehwah Liberia on the Sehwah-SRDC Public Library Project in Monrovia, Liberia
In a 29 January 2019 consultative meeting with The National Arcade Director and full teams, the African Union Ambassador to Liberia and SRDC/Sehwah Liberia representatives held our first discussion to harmonize the public Library and the future sites for the library.
The National Arcade (GOL) and SRDC/Sehwah Liberia Incorporated, and in collaboration with the African Union Regional Office-Monrovia, Liberia organized the National project for Liberia which aimed at discussing the proposed sites for inclusion of the National Public LibraryProperty. The project is to enhance capacity in implementing the education system in Liberia.
Based on the importance and a special need for the first National Public Library to be constructed in Liberia, the African Union ambassador welcomed this project and the plan to fund it from the African Union and the international partners of the AU for Liberia. Successful Finance Planning for the 2 acres of land is designated for the National Public Library in central Monrovia.
February 10, 2019: Mrs. Louise W. McMillian [Siaway], Founder of Sehwah Liberia Incorporated, visited the land for the proposed public library site in Monrovia and discussed a partnership agreement with The National Arcade of Liberia and based on the conversation, the decision was reached for the African Union Ambassador to Liberia to represent the AU for the library in regards to financing the projects for the first public library ever to be built in Liberia. The next step is property analysis for the architectural drafting technical team to design the library base on the land space, etc., associated with the project.
The mission of the National Public Library of Liberia is far reaching and deeply motivated. As a first repository for the Republic’s rich history, it will be a beacon of knowledge, unity and inspiration for all. This Library will be a state of the art complex.
“The historic Liberia Public Library will be vibrant community buildings for peace and security for the country and will embrace the opportunity to observe, interact, and consider human events in the realm of ideas that will empower the people to make a difference in their communities and socially impact the nation with the pride and self-esteem of a modern nation to contribute meaningfully to the development agenda. SRDC will provide technical support.” (Statement from the African Union Ambassador)
The African Union (AU) Ambassador to Liberia, Ibrahim M. Kamara, has said the Union is satisfied with the level of peace and security in the country since the end of the 14-year civil conflict. Kamara also said it is the responsibility of the AU to support the development agenda of Liberia, which is a founding member of the body, in the name of Pan-African solidarity.
The Ambassador recounted that the National Public Library will play a significant role in Liberia to ensure that the peace and security the country now enjoys is continued.
SRDC (Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus) is a 501 (C-3) legally registered civil society organization based in Seattle, Washington and Los Angeles, California. The primary purpose of SRDC is to help bring the African Diaspora into a working partnership with the African Union, and individual African countries, which will be mutually beneficial to Africa and to the Diaspora. Examples of such partnerships include the current project to build a new public library in Liberia, on-going efforts to encourage and work with groups like AFRICARE and the ASI (African Scientific Institute) to provide free technical training to African youth, gaining Diaspora membership in the African Union, working with the Pan African Parliament, etc. The SRDC promotes diplomatic training and engagement among African-descendent youth, endorses and supports the accomplishment of the AU’s AGENDA 2063, and sees itself as a positive representative and spokesman for Pan African unification.
The SRDC believes that working collaboratively; we are stronger in our quest to restore dignity, respect and sustainable development on the African continent and in the Diaspora. This group with support from Partners intends to construct a National Public Library for the benefit of thousands of residents of Montserrado County, and other counties and locals within the territorial boundary of the Country.
The Liberian Delegation Officially Announces the Commencement of the Library Project
On Day Two of the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) 12th Annual International Summit, held October 25-26, 2019 in Charleston, South Carolina, the crowning achievement of the weekend was realized: the official designation of the Sehwah-SRDC Liberia Library Project. With assistance from a cooperative arrangement between Sehwah, a grassroots Pan-Afrikan organization in Liberia; the African Union; and the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC), the country’s first ever Public Library is now slated to be built on a two-acre tract of land in the capital city of Monrovia provided by the government of the Republic of Liberia.
Ms. Louise Siaway is Executive Director of Sehwah-Liberia. Over the last year, as Sehwah has solidified its cooperative arrangement with SRDC, Liberia is now home to the first SRDC organization on the Afrikan Continent, complete with an office space that has yet to be fully furnished and placed into operation. She is a former Assistant Minister of Cultural Affairs and Tourism in the administration of former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Ms. Siaway has been negotiating with the African Union on the need to work cooperatively with SRDC to construct what will be the first public library in Liberia.
“The strengthening of the relationship between SRDC and Afrika is working. With an office in Liberia, it is now a topic of SRDC in the Continent. So, we would like to call on the [Liberian] government representative for land. The government of Liberia gave two acres of land to SRDC’s project for the public library in Liberia,” she said as she introduced the National Archive Director-General of Liberia, Mr. C. Neileh Daitouah.
Mr. Daitouah made the official presentation of a deed to two acres of land in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city, to Ms. Siaway.
“I bring you greetings on behalf of His Excellency, George Manneh Weah, President of the Republic of Liberia and the government and the lovely people of Liberia. … We are delighted about the invitation extended to us to participate in the 12th Annual Conference of the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus … to bring together the Afrikan Diaspora into a working partnership with the African Union. This endeavor of partnership is a laudable initiative toward regional integration and sustainable development. …
“As the 2019 Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus seeks to stimulate a constructive dialog, knowledge sharing, and formulation of a new social and cultural economy, and strategic efforts to bring the Afrikan Diaspora into a working partnership with the African Union and further highlights a part of its objective …
“And we underscore the importance of the objectives for this conference, that is to the sustainable development of individual Afrikan countries and further set the stage for the opportunity to share with you fellow participants, our initiative and exciting efforts to seek to promote and improve the educational center of Liberia, especially with what has to do with library development in Liberia.
“The lack of a modern library in Liberia is a serious impediment to the educational needs of the people in Liberia. As we have come to see, a public library is a powerhouse for acquiring knowledge. …
“We have been holding discussions with Ms. Louise Siaway, Executive Director of Sehwah-SRDC. She is a former Assistant Minister of Cultural Affairs and Tourism [in the administration of] Her Excellency, [former] President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and who has been negotiating with the African Union on our behalf, on the need to construct a worthy public library in Liberia and have as one component a Presidential Library that will profile the civic and vital accomplishments of past and present presidents of the Republic of Liberia for our present and future generations to know the role played and the accomplishments of their former and present presidents. …
“The African Union has agreed to construct the [national] library … and the government of Liberia will require that the land available is suitable land for said construction. …
“Subsequently, we received the letter of confirmation from the Liberian Land Authority about the availability of land for the construction of the public library in Liberia by the African Union in partnership with SRDC.
“On behalf of the government of Liberia, we are pleased to present that aforementioned letter of confirmation of land. …
“On this note, it is my honor to invite the Director of Sehwah to receive from us on behalf of the government of Liberia, the letter confirming the availability of two acres of land.
“As we conclude, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we look forward to the realization of a dream come true. The construction of a Public National Library in Liberia by Afrikans working in partnership with SRDC. Thank you and may God bless you all. Liberia is home for all Black Afrikans.”
Ms. Siaway then invited the Minister/Counselor for the Liberian Embassy and the SRDC leadership to the podium.
“I would like to call on our Assistant Ambassador, Dr. Horne and the leadership of SRDC. This is the official turning over of the deed to SRDC and to let you know that the government of Liberia and AU, African Union, welcome the Children of Afrika. And all of our delegation from Liberia, Sehwah-Liberia, are honored to present this, like we said last year: Bridging the Gap Between Us.”
Ms. Sophia Togba Mawle, Minister Counselor of the Liberian Embassy, representing the Liberian Ambassador to the United States, The Honorable George S. W. Patten Sr., officially presented the Land Deed to SRDC’s International Facilitator, Professor David L. Horne.
“Indeed, we need to come together as one. For the common good of our people. Indeed, we need to raise up our hands, in our collective, to raise up and run with this vision. We are here, and we are here in our capacity to support this effort. …
“Indeed, it is an honor, on behalf of the government of the Republic of Liberia to present at this time, to the leadership and members of Sehwah, to Dr. David L. Horne, the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus in the Americas, we want to take this time to present to you this deed. … We want to raise our hand to say, We are one from the Motherland, and we are going to build the Motherland to our collective. We want to present this deed; even as you galvanize the resources, even as we go about this vision, we know that it will come to reality in the Republic of Liberia, this Library Project that will serve the sub-region – Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea [Conakry], Ivory Coast. Yes, We Can!”
Discussion of the Liberia Library Project and the January 2019 Visit of SRDC to Monrovia, Liberia
Mr. Nvasekie Konneh, Public Relations Officer for Sehwah-Liberia, then made a more detailed presentation about the future public library, including photographs of the prospective building, the land that has been prepared for the construction, and the recent visit by Prof. Horne, Bro. Kumasi Palmer, Bro. Fred Lincoln and Sis. Deborah Wright as representatives of SRDC to Liberia to commemorate and celebrate this important new partnership.
“Today, I have come humble in my stance but progressive in my thoughts about a vision of unity and connectivity concerning our cause as Afrikan people. The SRDC must come together with us and accept the view that the continent of Africa is ours and not allow others to do more than us. This vision has already been casted and we must all own it so as to move forward as a people, united in progress.
“We must treat the continent of Afrika and its people just as the Jews from all over the world consider the state of Israel as their home.
“We should not sit on the sideline and complain about other groups of people investing on the continent and extracting the natural resources of this great continent. Today, everybody is talking about China, or Russia. Everybody’s coming to Afrika, right? To extract resources for, I guess they would say, our mutual benefit, but most likely it may benefit them more than us. But we, the sons and daughters of Afrika, those who have come from the Afrikan Continent, and the Afrikan Diaspora in America and the Caribbean, we must come together [for] building for our own benefit.
“We have to be part of those who will make history and not watch as history is written.
“Our contribution will be noted and generations yet unborn will see that we have provided them a cultural inheritance that has no monetary value. Let me say that as we gather here today, we have to take a seat at the African dinner table of development and cooperation amongst our brothers and sisters.
“Through this movement, we must go back and educate our children about our connection to the African continent and the Diaspora as a whole, meaning the partnership that exists between the native Afrikans and the Afrikan Diaspora must be taught to our children on both sides of the Atlantic so that the children of Afrika will know the connection and the children over here will understand the connection.
“Sometimes there’s a lot of misconception … particularly among young people. I remember years ago, when I was in the US Navy. I served many years in the US Navy, I served on two battleships, and I was stationed in Philadelphia, but I realized there’s a lot of misconception. Many times, when I come home around Afrikan people, I hear some thing they say about Afrikan Americans, and when I come among my Afrikan American Brothers and Sisters I hear them say something about native Afrikans. And it disturbs me. And I feel like there is a lot of communication that is needed for all of us to understand and to work together as one people for one common agenda.
“SEHWAH Liberia is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable development, through building cultural heritages initiative and advocacy for women and children in Liberia. So, our partnership with SRDC is geared toward promoting this kind of development agenda for both our areas. Because I believe, for a lot of Afrikan Americans, you feel the deep connection to the land of your birth. There’s a lot of great people that have done a lot of great work, for this connectivity we are having today. I’m a writer. And I can go back to Accra or Johannesburg and … coming to today, we have to understand that there is a lot of good work that is being done; we are only building on the foundation that has been laid by other people before us. Whether it was Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, Martin Luther King, Marcus Garvey, their vision is the same one we are building today. I remember several years ago, when Rev. Dr. Leon Sullivan organized the African and African American Summit; I was here when the first one was here. … So, that work has been going on for a while, and Sehwah is coming to continue the work that has been going on for all these many years.
“Last year Dr. Horne and a delegation from SRDC went to Liberia, and we attended the SRDC program last year in Baltimore to basically bring us together for one common purpose. And as you said here today, this library project must be brought to reality for future benefit.
“This is the land that is being demarcated for the library project in Liberia. That’s the land where the library is to be built in Monrovia.
“And this is the “blueprint” [a proposed version] of the library.
“As you can see here, Dr. Horne is being greeted by the joyous people of Liberia, celebrating the arrival of his delegation.
“Making reference to 1822. What some of you may not know, after the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, some Afrikan Americans decided to go back to Afrika to start a country. And though there might have been a lot of negative things about the coming together of the native Afrikans and the Afrikan Americans, but a good thing is that we have a nation called Liberia as a result of it. Coming together. And we will also have to understand it took a lot of sacrifices for the people to leave everything they had known for hundreds of years to go back to Afrika, to an unknown situation, When people who have been separated for hundreds of years come together, sometimes you can have some commotion, some misunderstanding, but at the end of the day, we have the Republic of Liberia today.
“This is more of the interaction between Dr. Horne and Liberians [enjoying] Sehwah’s program, which was a very elaborate program with government officials, the former vice president of Liberia was present, as you can see here.
“There’s a saying that a picture says a thousand words. So, for all of us here that are seeing the slide show here with all of these pictures, be assured that the relationship between Sehwah and SRDC is well cemented in our history. These are art and cultural artifacts that are on display at the occasion as well. Cultural dancers in Liberia serenading the delegates with beautiful Afrikan songs and dances.
“The wife of the late vice president of Liberia [center of the photo] was also in attendance at the program.
“It means that SRDC visited Liberia last year. It was a high profile event that was covered by the Liberian media. … And of course, there is a lot of enthusiasm in Liberia for this wonderful project. So we would like to extend great thanks to our Executive Director Ms. Louise Siaway for having the vision to initiate such a project, and we would also like to show our appreciation to the members and leadership of SRDC for deciding to partner with us to undertake such a wonderful project.
“SEHWAH Liberia and Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) initiated a partnership in Liberia for the purpose of strengthening engagements with stakeholders in Africa and Diaspora.
“2018, we had the honor to enter into partnership agreement for sustainable Development on the continent and Diasporas. Both agreed that there are ample opportunities in bringing the African Diaspora into a working partnership between Africa.’Bridging the gaps between ourselves’.
“We all have to be proactive in these endeavors because there is no time to standstill but to create financial, social and moral method to make this journey a success.
The 12th International Summit of the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC), held in Charleston, South Carolina over the October 25-26 weekend, featured among its various agenda items a panel discussion on the state of Pan-Afrikanism in the 21st Century. The panel was held on the afternoon of the final day of the public Summit, October 26. The panelists who were invited to present their viewpoints were the following:
Professor David L. Horne, International Facilitator of the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC). His experience with Pan-Afrikanism includes his status as a tenured professor of Afrikan History, a participant at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, his participation in a number of Pan-Afrikan conferences since that time, his membership in several Pan-Afrikan organizations from the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA) to the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).
Ms. Sophia Togba Mawle, Minister Counselor, Embassy of Liberia. She is the representative of the Liberian Ambassador to the United States, the Honorable George S.W, Patten Sr.
Ms. Mirtha Colon, president of the Central American Black Organization or CABO (in Spanish, the Organizacion Negra Centroamericana or ONECA). Born in Honduras, she now resides in New York, where she ably coordinates the activities of the premier Black organization in Central America.
Bro. Demba Hydara of The Gambia. He has been involved with SRDC since at least 2016, coordinating the provision of surplus goods and services to his home country through the SRDC office in Seattle, Washington State. A prolific traveler across at least North and West Afrika, he has opened doors for SRDC on the Continent through cooperative ventures on behalf of The Gambia.
Bro. Kumasi Palmer, South Carolina Facilitator, SRDC. He has worked alongside Professor Horne at least since 2001. He and the South Carolina SRDC have sponsored several trips to the Mother Continent for youth. He also owns property in Ghana, where he has participated in several economic development projects,
Sis. Victory Swift, founder of Our Victorious City and a member of the Maryland Organizing Committee. Sis. Victory has been involved with SRDC in Maryland since 2009, and has led several community projects over the years, from the Afrikan Heritage Walk-A-Thon to her current work with Our Victorious City, which she named after her son Victorious, who was a victim in a murder-robbery in 2017.
Bro. Malcolm Cash, educator and community activist. Bro. Cash was involved with SRDC through the Columbus, Ohio SRDC Organization, which went inactive after 2013.
The panel began with opening remarks from Professor David Horne:
Ms. Sophia Togba Mawle of the Liberian Embassy then made her statement:
Next was Ms. Mirtha Colon of CABO:
Bro. Demba Hydara of The Gambia offered his perspective on 21st Century Pan-Afrikanism:
Bro. Kumasi Palmer and Sis. Victory Swift then made their statements:
Finally, Bro. Malcolm Cash applied his experience as a father and a teacher to the issue.
The panel then discussed three questions from the audience: How do we involve our children in the push for Pan-Afrikanism and this new movement of change? How do we keep the fires of Pan-Afrikanism burning in the 21st Century? And do any of the panelists feel they are fighting a “losing cause”?
Professor Horne introduced these questions and gave his answer to the last one:
Finally, the discussion was opened up to more comments from the audience:
In the end, the struggle to “keep the fires burning”, awaken an awareness of Pan-Afrikanism in our children and avoid this struggle becoming a “losing cause” will depend on each of us. As a grassroots organization participating in what must be a grassroots-led movement, SRDC and those like us must show the resolve that we call for from the people. Pan-Afrikanism as a global movement will not succeed unless the activists and organizers consistently take it seriously and show the people the value of cooperative work by practicing it among themselves. Perhaps the cooperative effort of Sehwah Liberia and SRDC can provide one such model for the people to follow.
On Saturday, October 19 from 5 pm to 7 pm, an important discussion will take place concerning Islam and the Incarcerated Community in Greenbelt, Maryland. Among the featured speakers will be Baba Tyronne Morton, National Advisor for the human rights organization Aging People in Prison Human Rights Campaign (APP-HRC). Also featured will be Nabihah Maqbool, Legal Fellow, Muslim Associates; Imam Bilal Prather, Director, Millati Islami World Service; and Dr. Maha Hilal, Co-Director, Justice for Muslims Collective. The event is sponsored by the Islamic Leadership Institute of America.
The event will be held at 9200 Edmonston Road, Greenbelt, Maryland 20770. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/thehiddenummah.
Rain brought on by Hurricane Dorian continues to pour in Freeport, Bahamas, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. Practically parking over the Bahamas for a day and a half, Dorian pounded away at the islands Tuesday in a watery onslaught that devastated thousands of homes, trapped people in attics and crippled hospitals. (AP Photo/Tim Aylen)
As Hurricane Dorian continues to work its destructive way up the east coast of the United States, threatening coastal communities including the Geechie-Gullah settlements of the Carolinas, it has taken a while for me to process the devastation and loss of life that has already resulted from its recent assault upon The Bahamas. I’m not sure if there are any estimates on the loss of life that are anywhere near accurate, but whatever they are, we can unfortunately expect that number to grow as the rescue operations and the efforts to bring aid to the survivors there grow increasingly desperate.
I remember my honeymoon (I won’t tell you how long ago that was), when my new wife and I (we’re still together, thank you) took a short cruise that visited the Abaco Islands of The Bahamas. The excitement level was not high, but the relaxing nature of those peaceful islands gave me some idea of what paradise might look like to those of us whose lives are too often defined by the frantic comings and goings of what we like to call “the rat race”. It’s sad to think that those beautiful places may be no more, in part due to the negligence of those polluters, resource extractors and major global players who discount the catastrophic effects climate change is having on the planet by generating more frequent, far larger and deadlier storms such as this.
Expressions of grief and sympathy for the victims have begun to appear on Facebook. As usual, there is outrage but also a feeling of helplessness. Most of those who are expressing themselves at this time lack the individual means to actually help the people of The Bahamas, so we are largely restricted (or so we think) to expressions of grief and offers of “thoughts and prayers”.
With our response to disasters like this, with so much devastation and loss of life, much like the outrage following each police murder of an unarmed Afrikan-American male (and nowadays, female), or the carnage that follows every mass shooting such as the massacres in El Paso, Dayton, Midland, Odessa, Las Vegas, Charleston and so many others, we rise up in indignation, we stage a mass action protest, we send a celebrity to the US Capitol or even to the United Nations, and then, after a while, the fervor fades and we return to our mundane lives, bracing ourselves for the next atrocity to incite us all in collective rancor. Some of us rise up, pump a fist in the air, and scream at the top of our lungs, “Never Again!” But rarely do we mount a coordinated response that puts in place a means to help ensure that such violations of our community, and of general human dignity, truly occur “Never Again”.
Perhaps a little historical refresher will help drive home my ultimate point.
Hurricane Katrina, September 2005
I remember how upset we all were in September 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, even before we learned of the first death from that disaster. There was a feeling of collective panic even as the hurricane was still churning in the Gulf of Mexico, taking aim at the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. After Katrina struck and devastated the city, Oprah Winfrey shared photographic and video accounts on her television talk show at the time, and people everywhere admitted to being forced to turn away from their television sets with tears in their eyes because they could not bear to continue to look at the images of destruction. Donations of money and supplies were collected and caravans were dispatched from across the country, in defiance of the federal government’s blockade, to take supplies there and to send people to New Orleans to personally observe and report on the conditions and the government’s non-response. A community play was produced, “Katrina: A Whole Lotta Water”, which was performed in Baltimore and other cities by a group of dedicated actors who had no resources or name recognition but plenty of commitment and the will to put their energies and talents toward something, anything that might help awaken us to the increasing environmental and meteorological crises that awaited Afrikan people in particular if we did not all become more aware of the threats to our existence.
The following July, a major meeting of community organizations in New Orleans was convened to plan an organized response to the city and state governments’ handling of Katrina’s aftermath, which had included the “forced removal” of several communities, primarily Black, who had survived the hurricane as well as the permanent shuttering of public schools and housing projects in preparation for a major wave of privatized “disaster-gentrification” projects in New Orleans. I was invited by Elder Leon Waters, a local historian and community activist, to attend, and after two previous failed attempts to drive to The Big Uneasy shortly after the disaster, I finally made my way there in July 2006 for the meeting. There I was able to see the devastation first-hand (only without all the water, which had drained from the city but still left an orange line on many of the buildings, seven feet or more above street level, where the water had settled for two weeks). I also learned about plans for what would be the September 2007 Hurricane Katrina Tribunal, where an international panel of community judges would spend a week listening to the testimonies of weather experts, environmental activists, community organizers, Indigenous community leaders and citizens about the mistakes, misdeeds and crimes committed by authorities before the storm, as the storm was approaching, during the storm itself and in its aftermath. At one point, the panel of judges traveled to the Lower Ninth Ward, where they viewed what was left of that once-vibrant Black neighborhood, and, despite the fact that it had been cleaned up considerably in the two years since the hurricane, when they saw the destruction that remained, they all broke down and wept.
Years later, New Orleans has recovered, but many of its Black residents have not. Sent away to places as close as Baton Rouge and as far away as Houston, Atlanta, New York, Minnesota and the Pacific Northwest, many who had either fled the city or been “removed” during and after the storm never returned, either because they had been sent too far away, or because they could not afford to return, or because they feared another hurricane there would be their last. Whatever the reason, the city that was known as the major port that received and unloaded half of the goods entering the United States with a dedicated workforce of longshoremen and associated dock workers was now smaller, Whiter and somewhat more affluent, an objective that had been sought by many powerful White Southerners and misguided politicians long before Katrina paid its fateful visit to the Gulf.
In Katrina’s aftermath, public officials in Louisiana have made some astonishingly frank comments. “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did,” Rep. Richard H. Baker, a Republican from Baton Rouge, was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal last September [2005]. Former New Orleans City Council president Peggy Wilson, a candidate in the [2006] mayoral election, declared that the city should keep out “pimps” and “welfare queens,” while City Council president Oliver Thomas, who is African-American, said that public housing should be for people who work, instead of for “soap opera watchers.” – from “Locking Out New Orleans’ Poor” By Bill Sasser, June 12, 2006, available at Spiegel Online, https://www.spiegel.de/international/after-hurricane-katrina-locking-out-new-orleans-poor-a-420880-2.html
Hurricanes Maria and Irma, September 2017
Point-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe, during Hurricane Irma.
I remember as recently as two years ago, when Category 5 Hurricanes Maria and Irma struck the Eastern Caribbean. Irma struck first, in early September, and laid waste to many communities in the British and US Virgin Islands (where friends of mine live), Guadeloupe (where another friend lives), Cuba, Ayiti and Puerto Rico, among other areas, before drawing a bead on the United States. According to a Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Irma):
The storm caused catastrophic damage in Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Anguilla, and the Virgin Islands as a Category 5 hurricane. The hurricane caused at least 134 deaths: one in Anguilla; one in Barbados; three in Barbuda; four in the British Virgin Islands; 10 in Cuba; 11 in the French West Indies; one in Haiti; three in Puerto Rico; four on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten; 92 in the contiguous United States, and four in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hurricane Irma was the top Google searched term in the US and globally in 2017.
Hurricane Maria over Puerto Rico. (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
But Irma was evidently not enough. Maria came along two weeks later, dealing a double-blow to those islands already seriously weakened by Irma and laying waste to Puerto Rico. According to another Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Maria):
Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated Dominica, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico in September 2017. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affect those islands and was also the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Mitch in 1998. The tenth-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record and the most intense tropical cyclone worldwide in 2017, Maria was the thirteenth named storm, eighth consecutive hurricane, fourth major hurricane, second Category 5 hurricane, and deadliest storm of the hyperactive 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. At its peak, the hurricane caused catastrophic destruction and numerous fatalities across the northeastern Caribbean, compounding recovery efforts in the areas of the Leeward Islands already struck by Hurricane Irma. Total losses from the hurricane are estimated at upwards of $91.61 billion (2017 USD), mostly in Puerto Rico, ranking it as the third-costliest tropical cyclone on record.
Some of the devastation from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. (Source: ABC)
In the wake of these disasters, the response of the Trump administration was more uncaring and ineffective than that of the Bush administration after Katrina. US president Donald Trump claimed to have dispatched record amounts of aid to Puerto Rico which was mismanaged, but the enduring image of Trump’s visit to that US territory in which he tossed rolls of paper towels to the gathered crowd and portrayed himself as a savior still rankles many activists and government officials to this day. His ongoing Twitter war with San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, and his most recent condemnation of the governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosello, have served to deflect attention from the failure of his administration to restore power in Puerto Rico for over a year. Puerto Rico has not been completely restored two years later, and many of the island territory’s Afrikan-descendant residents, United States citizens all, still have not recovered.
Meanwhile, Trump, in a continuing fit of willful ignorance and immoral defiance, states time after time that he has “never heard of a Category 5 hurricane” (despite having presided over four Category 5 hurricanes that struck the United States and Caribbean since he invaded the White House in January 2017) and that “no one has ever seen a Category 5 hurricane” despite the clear documented history that shows thirty-five Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin since 1851, when records began (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Category_5_Atlantic_hurricanes), all of which made landfall and impacted the Caribbean, Central or North America and the communities that lived there.
“Thoughts and Prayers” versus Committed Action
It’s increasingly clear that the overused cliché of “thoughts and prayers” has worn thin. When politicians used it earlier this year at public appearances in the wake of mass shootings, angry constituents yelled “Do something” at them. Television talk show hosts, journalists and commentators have taken to calling these “thoughts and prayers” expressions by politicians exactly what they are: empty proclamations and platitudes that are rarely, if ever, backed up by official action. A few perfunctory mentions of background checks and assault weapons restrictions in the wake of another mass shooting. Empty promises to institute civilian review boards in response to another incident of police brutality. “Thoughts and prayers”, along with an occasional theoretical concession to climate change activists as the devastation from another record-breaking Category 5 hurricane is documented. All of which are conveniently forgotten in short order. None of which results in concrete action from the representatives of the Powers That Be.
If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When?
If elected leaders and official politicians are not ready to take concrete action to deal with these crises that destroy our communities (while largely leaving theirs intact to continue to enjoy the profits from weapons sales, the rewards from their dividends in resource-extractive industries and the protection of their ill-gotten gains courtesy of the police), and if the major corporations are not inclined to place limits on their own behavior that aggravates these conditions, then it is left to us, the People, to take what actions we can.
As I said above, most of us feel powerless to stop these disasters from befalling us and our communities or to assist in their recovery because we lack the individual means to stop climate change, prevent the next mass shooting or reduce the dependency on sometimes-corrupt (but, to be fair, not always) police, or even to send the kinds of aid to our people who are traumatized by these crimes against humanity that would truly help them recover. We temper our collective outrage by reminding ourselves that there is nothing any of us can do individually to make a real difference.
Individually, no. But collectively, yes.
There is a veritable alphabet soup of groups and activists who stake a claim to Pan-Afrikan righteousness and who insist, to a woman or man, that it is only through our unity that we can lift ourselves up as a people. Well then, doesn’t that unity start with each of us, and especially with the numerous organizations that insist that Unity Is The Answer? If we ever are able to get all the organizations that insist we must unite to actually do so (and I don’t mean that they must join each other or join one big organization, only that they should find a way to work together on common issues that impact us all), then it might be possible to put in place some real responses to disasters like this, responses that are led by the Grassroots Community and not dependent upon high-level government officials or captains of industry who too often are motivated by their own personal bottom line. Considering what our oppressors are constantly doing to the climate of the planet, and the impact it is having of increasing the number and severity of these types of storms, we can only expect more scenes like these in the future, or worse. The same can be said about each mass shooting, each police attack, each senseless criminal act within our communities. The time to plan a coordinated response to these disasters, from a Pan-Afrikan viewpoint and led by Pan-Afrikan organizers and activists who give a damn and have a pot to pee in, is now.
It’s not as if we have no resources to draw from. In fact, we have many. In some ways we behave like the donkey who died of thirst because he couldn’t decide which puddle of water to drink from. But the fact is that among us we have practically all the ingredients needed to make things happen for our people, if only we had the will to bring them together and act collectively. There are Lobbying Organizations and Think Tanks among us who are familiar with the local, state and federal legislative processes, and can apply political pressure on those bodies to act in the interests of Afrikan People. There are Direct Action Groups that excel at organizing mass protests at City Hall, the State House, the Capitol and in the streets of Downtown Anywhere, USA. There are groups of Artists who can get together and plan benefit concerts or create works of visual, musical or performance art to help drive home a message of inspiration, unity and uplift in a time of increasing danger. There are members of Pan-Afrikan Media who hold down radio shows, run entire radio stations, publish newspapers, write books and manage social media sites that can get information out to the People. There are Black Businesses who can provide services and goods to suffering communities and to organizations seeking to respond to crises. There are members ofthe Science Community: health practitioners, such as medical personnel, environmentalists, inventors and mental health professionals, who can respond to crises and see to the mental, physical and community well-being of our People. There are Lawyers who can fight the battles in court, from the repeal of draconian laws to the defense of activists and prisoners who are pursued and prosecuted for their organizing work. There are Grassroots Activists who are needed to get the people together and galvanize them to participate in Mass Actions and the day-to-day community healing that will be needed to recover from crises and to prevent the next ones. And there are Pan-Afrikan Educators, Organizers, Elders and Spiritual Leaders to help us keep all of our roles in historical perspective as we struggle to build the Unity that we all claim we want but have so far failed miserably to bring into existence. I won’t name these organizations, activists and concerned citizens here because I didn’t write this to call them out by name (I respect their work too much for that) and I really don’t need to. They know who they are and how they could participate in a Cooperative Coalition, but they are there and their input is needed to craft a collective solution, now.
I’m all for thoughts and prayers for victims, but they must be backed up by action at some point. Political leaders who make empty promises of police accountability after an act of brutality or who offer only “thoughts and prayers” after natural disasters and assault-rifle massacres but take no actions to prevent the next one are hypocrites who only want the heat on them for their inactivity to be taken off. Let’s think of the people and pray for them, yes, because any real action begins with conscious thoughts and sincere, righteous prayer. But let us follow those “thoughts and prayers” up with action.
And the easiest action of all is to get together and decide to do something about it, together. By ourselves, we accomplish little, which is part of the reason why so few of us even try. But enough of us should be familiar with the cliché “Together Everyone Achieves More” to know what we must do.
Contact other organizations, even those with whom you may have had differences in the past, and agree to meet to work out some comprehensive, cooperative solutions. This is something that obviously must be done throughout the Pan-Afrikan World, since wherever you go around the globe where there are large numbers of people of Afrikan Descent, we are all beset by multiple “indicators of repression” (environmental racism, disaster non-response, political instability, human trafficking, police brutality and several others). But a grassroots response such as this will by necessity emanate from local community activists, organizations and concerned citizens on the ground where we live. In the process of organizing these localities and linking them with others who do the same, we will see that our issues are linked to each other by their sameness and the identification of the same oppressors, and that our resultant struggle as Afrikan People is the same one all around the world.
My organization (Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus, http://www.srdcinternational.org) will gladly get the ball rolling in Maryland by calling a Cooperative Coalition meeting this fall, probably on a Saturday afternoon in October or November. The Historic Arch Social Club in Baltimore is the likely location, but I’ll need to make the arrangements with their leadership to ensure the venue is available (and that I can afford to book it). Anyone who wants to discuss it or get more information on the Cooperative Coalition can feel free to contact me at cliff@kuumbareport.com, or even comment on this Web site or on Facebook. We’ll invite local and regional Pan-Afrikan organizations, activists and concerned members of the Grassroots Community to come and work on building the Cooperative Coalition, which we hope will lead to a Pan-Afrikan United Front one day. All it costs us is our time and our foolish pride.
Black August brings a number of important events to Baltimore and Maryland. Here, we announce three of them: the RBG Human Flag Day and Garvey Day on Saturday, August 17l and the Afrikan Family Day Tribute to Ancestors Roots on Sunday, August 18.
A Brief History of Black August
August is an important month in the history of Black Resistance in the United States. “Black August”, as it is often known, commemorates our struggle to free ourselves from oppression since the time of our enslavement in the US. In recognition of the many historic events that marked the month of August, Pan-Afrikan activists often celebrate our struggle through a number of commemorations during the month of August.
Black August originated in the California penal system to honor fallen Freedom Fighters, Jonathan Jackson, George Jackson, William Christmas, James McClain and Khatari Gaulden. Jonathan Jackson was gunned down outside the Marin County California courthouse on August 7, 1970 as he attempted to liberate three imprisoned Black Liberation Fighters: James McClain, William Christmas and Ruchell Magee. Ruchell Magee is the sole survivor of that armed liberation attempt. … George Jackson was assassinated by prison guards during a Black prison rebellion at San Quentin on August 21, 1971. …
Khatari Gaulden was a prominent leader of the Black Guerilla Family (BGF) after Comrade George was assassinated. Khatari was a leading force in the formation of Black August, particularly its historical and ideological foundations. …
Black August is a time to embrace the principles of unity, self-sacrifice, political education, physical training and resistance. …
In the late 1970’s the observance and practice of Black August left the prisons of California and began being practiced by Black/New Afrikan revolutionaries throughout the country. Members of the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) began practicing and spreading Black August during this period. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) inherited knowledge and practice of Black August from its parent organization, the New Afrikan People’s Organization (NAPO). …
Traditionally, Black August is a time to study history, particularly our history in the North American Empire. The first Afrikans were brought to Jamestown as slaves in August of 1619, so August is a month during which Blacks/New Afrikans can reflect on our current situation and our self-determining rights. … In 1843, Henry Highland Garnett called a general slave strike on August 22. The Underground Railroad was started on August 2, 1850. The March on Washington occurred in August of 1963, Gabriel Prosser’s 1800 slave rebellion occurred on August 30 and Nat Turner planned and executed a slave rebellion that commenced on August 21, 1831. The Watts rebellions were in August of 1965. On August 18, 1971 the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) was raided by Mississippi police and FBI agents. The MOVE family was [attacked] by Philadelphia police on August 8, 1978. Further, August is a time of birth. Dr. Mutulu Shakur (political prisoner & prisoner of war), Pan-Africanist Black Nationalist Leader Marcus Garvey, Maroon Russell Shoatz (political prisoner) and Chicago BPP Chairman Fred Hampton were born in August. August is also a time of rebirth, W.E.B. Dubois died in Ghana on August 27, 1963.
MXGM would like to thank the following for their contribution to this article: Kali Akuno, Kiilu Nyasha, Ayanna Mashama, David Giappa Johnson, Sundiata Tate, Louis Bato Talamantez of the San Quentin 6 and The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM).
Saturday, August 17:RBG Human Flag Day and Marcus Garvey Day in Baltimore
The weekend of August 17 and 18 holds particular significance in the Baltimore, Maryland area this year. Baba Charlie Dugger holds an annual observance of Garvey Day at this time, often beginning with a march through several West Baltimore streets and culminating with a Garvey Day celebration in Harlem Park in West Baltimore. This year, the celebration takes on added significance, as a coalition of organizations led by the Black Wolves Youth Scouts and its founder, Bro. Mosiah Fit, are holding the first Red-Black-Green Human Flag Day on the football field at Harlem Park (1500 Edmondson Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21123), starting at 11:00 AM.
The objective is for a crowd of between 3,000 and 10,000 people to assemble on the field and hold red, black and green placards and create a large Human Flag in the colors of Afrikan Liberation that can be filmed and photographed from helicopters circling above. Part of the inspiration for this idea comes from the red, white and blue human flags that have been created and displayed at Federal Hill, Fort McHenry and other locations to celebrate events in US history. This event, however, will celebrate the history of Pan-Afrikan struggle against oppression in the United States.
Baba Charlie Dugger’s observance of Garvey Day, which he has sponsored for over 40 years, occurs immediately after the Human Flag Day event, next to the field in Harlem Park. There will be speakers, musicians and presentations to memorialize the work of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, as well as Pan-Afrikan fellowship and historical lessons for youth, adults and elders of the community.
Sunday, August 18: Afrikan Family Day, A Tribute to Ancestors Roots
The historic Arch Social Club will host a special event the following day to honor the lifelong contributions of Baba Ras Marcus and Mama Lola Jenkins, founders of Ancestors Roots, to the cultural and historical enrichment of Afrikan people in Maryland. For several decades through the 1990s and early 2000s, Ancestors Roots held regular Afrikan Family Day events at school auditoriums across Baltimore City.
These events always began with a Libation or Tambiko to honor the Ancestors of Afrikan People, recognizing the fact that we are only here today because of the struggles undertaken by those who came before us who held our personal families together and who fought for the liberation of all Afrikan people. Baba Ras Marcus always gave an in-depth yet easily understandable explanation of what the Libation ceremony means, the significance of pouring water (the most precious substance on the earth) into a plant or similar vessel (to signify growth and regeneration) while we call out the names of those who came before us. Mama Lola Jenkins would then lead the audience in the Afrikan Pledge. From there, a series of presentations would use storytelling, music, dance, spoken word and Baba Ras Marcus’ Drums of Kujichagulia to impart an understanding of Afrikan culture to the people. The events were aimed at the youth, the adults and the elders, for the purposes of education, inspiration and motivation to get out and continue the struggle that our Honored Ancestors have left for us to finish.
The Afrikan Family Day events stopped around the turn of the Millennium, largely because age and illness made it more difficult for Mama Lola Jenkins and Baba Ras Marcus to organize and hold them at the level they had been. Now, Baba Ras Marcus is being cared for at a Baltimore nursing home that is equipped to meet his needs, and Mama Lola is in a serious battle with advanced cancer. Being rather private people who chose not to burden the community with their personal struggles, their predicament has gone unnoticed for far too long. But the burden should have been ours to embrace all along, as Mama Lola Jenkins and Baba Ras Marcus sacrificed much for the historical and cultural enrichment of our community for years. In their time of need, the community has, quite frankly, been too consumed with other pursuits, some of them worthy, others not, to see their difficulty and come to their aid. Unfortunately, such is often the fate of our committed activists, that their years of sacrifice and struggle seem to go unrewarded. Now, local community activists such as Nana Nyamekye, Bro. Bill Goodin and others fear that Baba Ras Marcus and Mama Lola Jenkins may soon leave us to join the Ancestors. The least we can do as a community is come together for a special Afrikan Family Day and say “Asante Sana (Thank You)” to them for their many years of selfless service, and to give them a chance to “smell their roses while they are here.”
Longtime Baltimore-area activist Mama Victory Swift, founder of Our Victorious City and one of the key organizers of this Tribute, said the following on her Facebook page:
Please join us all for this magnanimous occasion to honor Harriet Tubman City/ Baltimore’ s Revolutionary Greats, Mama Lola Jenkins & Baba Ras Marcus’s Ancestors Roots celebration. These elders have been at the forefront of the conscious community for decades. Sadly; due to illnesses for years, they have both been unable to partake in our continued struggle for liberation. However, it is imperative that we give them their roses while they are still on this side of life and that we come together on this day, August 18,2019/ 6260 to give honor and love to two elder greats who have fought unyieldingly for our freedom, love, and unity! If you would love to donate or help with this event please contact the elders on this flyer or just call Mama Lola and give love, honor, and respect. I love you all! please share to your friends and family, let’s make this a day for them and their loved ones to always remember! Much Love!
The Afrikan Family Day Tribute to Ancestors Roots at Arch Social Club starts at 3:00 PM Sunday, August 18. Come out and show your support and gratitude to Mama Lola Jenkins and Baba Ras Marcus of Ancestors Roots. Contact Nana Nzinga Nyamekye at (443) 739-3620 or Mama Lola at (443) 419-6414.
EDITOR’S NOTE: On Wednesday, June 19th, Dr. Chukwuma Martin Okeke, President of the Mouvement International pour Reparation (MIR) in France, passed on to the Honored Ancestors. While much has been made of the struggle for Reparations in the United States, with prominent writers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates dressing down the United States Congress in a public hearing on the date of the celebration of the emancipation of the last enslaved Afrikans in Texas, known as “Juneteenth”, and with groups such as American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) advocating for Reparations for Afrikan-Americans, there has been an international movement for the cause as far away as the Caribbean, Europe and Afrika going on for many years. One of the more prominent international organizations is MIR, and Dr. Okeke has been its driving force. Below, we present tributes from two stalwart fighters for the cause from across the waters, Dr. Makeda Kandake of MIR from Guadeloupe in the Eastern Caribbean, and Dr. Barryl Biekman of the African Union African Diaspora Sixth Region (AUADS) Europe, a Pan-Afrikan Diaspora organization based primarily in The Netherlands.
Message of Tribute and Brief Biography from Dr. Makeda Kandake, MIR-Caribbean
HE WAS AND WILL REMAIN! “Death is a garment that everyone will wear” by Dr. Makeda Kandake Mouvement International pour Reparation (MIR)-Guadeloupe
Hotep to All!
On this day of celebration June tenth (Freedom Day or Emancipation Day), all these words that celebrate FREEDOM, Dr. Chukwuma Martin Okeke, President of MIR France, faithfully departed from us, to a place of Eternal Honor with the Ancestors.
First-rate humanist, affable and combative at the same time, he presided over the destiny of MIR France, with conviction and force, so that Reparations be granted to the descendants of deported Africans. A Man of science that he was, he was the inventor of a process now widely used by the French industry.
We spoke at length during my stay in Paris in March 2019, and little by little, during our discussion, hope illuminated his face, bringing out with strength the goodness that lived in him. Although the intensity was short, at each recurrence, joy enameled him, his face.
He would not have liked us to be devastated, however my mind is numbed by sorrow. As far as I’m concerned, I lost a friend, an ear, a support.
Thank you, dear Brother Martin, for the trust you have shown in me, and the honor you have given me by making me the International Representative of MIR France in the 6th region of Africa, the Diaspora.
Dear Brother Martin, you have now returned to the very select courtyard of glorious and luminous Ancestors.
My organization SRDC in the USA is paying tribute to you on its website, and the presidents of sister organizations have almost all shown up to pay tribute to you.
THAT THE EARTH OF YOUR ANCESTORS BE SOFT AND LIGHT, TO YOU, FREE AT LAST, FLY, FLY, MY FRIEND
Brief Biography by Dr. Makeda Kandake
He was an engineer specializing in the analysis of wear and aging of materials. He was one of the founders of an engineering school in Lyon, the 3rd largest city in France (ENIS). He arrived at the age of 20 in France following the Biafra war that was raging in his home country of Nigeria without knowing a word of French. He worked tirelessly to catch up with others and continue his studies, in which he brilliantly succeeded. He was a very beautiful person with great humanity. Always listening attentively to others and with great humility. Rich in, and yet thirsty for knowledge.
He was like all beautiful people — curious about the essentials. He fought to bring the issue of Reparations to the highest level in France, and was never stingy with advice on the issue. He dreamed of meeting all the good people who were fighting for Justice for Africans and African descendants.
He never failed to ask me to thank the sister organizations that had chosen to accept MIR France in their group and really hoped to meet the leaders of these organizations, such as the Professor David Horne from SRDC, David Commissiong from CPAN, Dr. Molefi Kete Asante and Professor Ama Mazama from Afrocentricity International. He enjoyed talking about Dr. Barryl Biekman, Malaak Shabazz, Dowoti Desir and many others. In short, he was a beautiful soul.
His transition is painful for us who stay here, but finally brought him rest from the ordeal of the illness that finally took him from us. June 19, International Day of Liberty (Juneteenth’s Day), is the date he has chosen for his ultimate trip to the Great Freedom to be with the Honored Ancestors. It only remains for us to thank him for his many contributions against the injustices towards our community and his sustained fight for the Reparations of the Trafficking and Slavery recognized as being Crimes against Humanity, and that we must tear up by all means the vestiges of slavery and exploitation. To his family we say to always cherish his memory and once again we bow respectfully to his memory. Thank you Friend, have a good trip to Honored Eternity and may the land where you rest be forever sweet and light.
Message of Tribute from Dr. Barryl Biekman, AUADS Europe
Dr. Barryl Biekman of African Union African Diaspora Sixth Region (AUADS) Europe, a Pan-Afrikan Diaspora organization operating out of The Netherlands, issued a brief message of condolence and tribute:
Indeed with the transition of Dr. Okeke we have lost a Great Pan African Hero. In 2007 he was at the forefront of the setting up and organizational development of the AUADS Europe and a GREAT supporter of the SRDC.
With his transition we have lost a GREAT fighter for the implementation of the 20 AU ECOSOCC seats for the Diaspora.
Dr. Martin Okeke I applaud for you and thank for all of your dedication; all that has been achieved because of your empowerment and strong belief.
Sister Makeda, SRDC & MIR families please receive my deepest condolences. May his soul rest in Peace.
The first day, Friday afternoon, began with a Tambiko or Libation ceremony, in which the attendees invoke the Creator, the different manifestations of the Creator (Orisha, Nsamamfo, Netcheru, and other subordinate Afrikan spiritual Ancestral deities analogous to the Archangels of Protestantism and the Patron Saints of Catholicism), and the Honored Ancestors of our families and of the global Black Struggle against oppression and toward the unity and uplift of Afrikan People. Names were invoked such as the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Harriet Tubman, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Steve Biko, Sojourner Truth, Henry Sylvester Williams, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Shirley Chisholm, Jomo Kenyatta, Amilcar Cabral, Fannie Oou Hamer, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Sankara, Malcolm X, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Yvette Colvin, Rosa Parks and so many others. The purpose is for the positive energy and spirit that imbued these Honored Ancestors would continue to inspire us to carry on with their historic and mighty work on behalf of Afrikan People.
“SRDC is … a Pan-Afrikan organization … that is where we are headed as a people worldwide, getting together globally. We need to become a global people. When we become a global people, then we develop power and influence. The problems in America, the problems in the Caribbean, the problems in Central America where our people are located, will never be resolved until Afrika is free, independent and powerful as a base. That’s been understood historically by Marcus Garvey, it was understood historically by Kwame Nkrumah, by and also Malcolm X. They were always saying we have to have a base. Afrika is our base, and after we become strong and independent, the world will respect us. It has to be [based on how] we see it. [For a lot of people] who are not here, they don’t understand this concept. We understand it as a strong moral concept, and it’s going to grow.
“And I want to say thank you to the SRDC members. We will go into more detail tomorrow, how we begin bridging the gap between us. You are Afrikan-American, I am an Afrikan. We are one.
After Professor Horne’s initial remarks that Friday evening, there were cultural presentations from several locally-connected Afrikan Drumming schools, who performed drum and dance routines for the assembled guests based on traditions from Afrikan and the nearby Geechie-Gullah communities.
Sis. Mirtha Colon is the current president of the Central American Black Organization or CABO (in Spanish, the name is Organizacion Negra Centroamericana or ONECA). Born in Honduras and living most of the last several decades in the New York area, Sis. Colon has been a guiding force in CABO for many years, and currently serves as the organization’s president.
Mama Maisha Washington is a member of the SRDC Maryland organizing committee as well as a member of the Maryland Council of Elders, which was officially seated at a December 2017 Maryland Pan Afrikan Town Hall Meeting. She is also a teacher and, as such, is helping spearhead the development of an Afrikan Centered Curriculum for Afrikan Diasporans.
Bro. Kamau Taplin is the Washington State SRDC Facilitator, based in Seattle. He has worked with The Gambia to arrange for the transport of surplus furniture and other goods to that Afrikan country. On the ground in Seattle, Bro. Kamau has also helped sponsor a number of cultural and business initiatives in the area.
Bro. Demba Hydara is SRDC’s connection to The Gambia. He has been working with Bro. Kamau Taplin to facilitate and strengthen ties between SRDC and the government and communities in The Gambia. Bro. Demba has attended several SRDC Summits over the past three to four years.
Bro. Kumasi Palmer is the SRDC South Carolina Facilitator and our gracious host for this year’s Summit. He has been involved in sponsoring youth tours to Afrika, primarily Ghana, where he also owns property, and was the primary initial connection between SRDC and the Liberian organization Sehwah, which, in cooperation with SRDC, is launching the Liberian Library Project.
Bro. Fred Lincoln is also from South Carolina, and has worked closely with Bro. Kumasi on SRDC projects. He also took many of the delegates to the Summit on a tour of the area, including a visit to a former plantation site and several settlements that sprang up in the countryside that had been founded by our Honored Ancestors who had endured and survived the horrors of enslavement, post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow to build vibrant, cooperative communities. Here, he gives a little background on that history, as well as efforts of the South Carolina organization to render aid to the communities in The Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian:
This article gives some details of the agreement between the Liberian grassroots organization known as Sehwah, the African Union, and the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) to proceed with the planning and construction of what will be the first-ever Public Library in Liberia, located on a two-acre plot of land in the capital city of Monrovia. The new library will service the nation-states of Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Conakry.
Mr. Daitouah made the official presentation of a deed to two acres of land in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city, to Ms. Siaway.
Ms. Sophia Togba Mawle, Minister Counselor of the Liberian Embassy, representing the Liberian Ambassador to the United States, The Honorable George S. W. Patten Sr., officially presented the Land Deed to SRDC’s International Facilitator, Professor David L. Horne.
Mr. Nvasekie Konneh, Public Relations Officer for Sehwah-Liberia, then made a more detailed presentation about the future public library, including photographs of the prospective building, the land that has been prepared for the construction, and the recent visit by Prof. Horne, Bro. Kumasi Palmer, Bro. Fred Lincoln and Sis. Deborah Wright as representatives of SRDC to Liberia to commemorate and celebrate this important new partnership.
The storm spent the better part of two days battering the island nation, moving along quite literally at a snail’s pace (zero to one mile an hour), devastating areas of Grand Bahama Island and practically destroying much of the idyllic Abaco Islands, including the main coastal town of Abaco March Harbor. 
With our response to disasters like this, with so much devastation and loss of life, much like the outrage following each police murder of an unarmed Afrikan-American male (and nowadays, female), or the carnage that follows every mass shooting such as the massacres in El Paso, Dayton, Midland, Odessa, Las Vegas, Charleston and so many others, we rise up in indignation, we stage a mass action protest, we send a celebrity to the US Capitol or even to the United Nations, and then, after a while, the fervor fades and we return to our mundane lives, bracing ourselves for the next atrocity to incite us all in collective rancor. Some of us rise up, pump a fist in the air, and scream at the top of our lungs, “Never Again!” But rarely do we mount a coordinated response that puts in place a means to help ensure that such violations of our community, and of general human dignity, truly occur “Never Again”.
of the federal government’s blockade, to take supplies there and to send people to New Orleans to personally observe and report on the conditions and the government’s non-response. A community play was produced, “Katrina: A Whole Lotta Water”, which was performed in Baltimore and other cities by a group of dedicated actors who had no resources or name recognition but plenty of commitment and the will to put their energies and talents toward something, anything that might help awaken us to the increasing environmental and meteorological crises that awaited Afrikan people in particular if we did not all become more aware of the threats to our existence.
The following July, a major meeting of community organizations in New Orleans was convened to plan an organized response to the city and state governments’ handling of Katrina’s aftermath, which had included the “forced removal” of several communities, primarily Black, who had survived the hurricane as well as the permanent shuttering of public schools and housing projects in preparation for a major wave of privatized “disaster-gentrification” projects in New Orleans. I was invited by Elder Leon Waters, a local historian and community activist, to attend, and after two previous failed attempts to drive to The Big Uneasy shortly after the disaster, I finally made my way there in July 2006 for the meeting. There I was able to see the devastation first-hand (only without all the water, which had drained from the city but still left an orange line on many of the buildings, seven feet or more above street level, where the water had settled for two weeks). I also learned about plans for what would be the September 2007 Hurricane Katrina Tribunal, where an international panel of community judges would spend a week listening to the testimonies of weather experts, environmental activists, community organizers, Indigenous community leaders and citizens about the mistakes, misdeeds and crimes committed by authorities before the storm, as the storm was approaching, during the storm itself and in its aftermath. At one point, the panel of judges traveled to the Lower Ninth Ward, where they viewed what was left of that once-vibrant Black neighborhood, and, despite the fact that it had been cleaned up considerably in the two years since the hurricane, when they saw the destruction that remained, they all broke down and wept.
As I said above, most of us feel powerless to stop these disasters from befalling us and our communities or to assist in their recovery because we lack the individual means to stop climate change, prevent the next mass shooting or reduce the dependency on sometimes-corrupt (but, to be fair, not always) police, or even to send the kinds of aid to our people who are traumatized by these crimes against humanity that would truly help them recover. We temper our collective outrage by reminding ourselves that there is nothing any of us can do individually to make a real difference.
It’s not as if we have no resources to draw from. In fact, we have many. In some ways we behave like the donkey who died of thirst because he couldn’t decide which puddle of water to drink from. But the fact is that among us we have practically all the ingredients needed to make things happen for our people, if only we had the will to bring them together and act collectively. There are Lobbying Organizations and Think Tanks among us who are familiar with the local, state and federal legislative processes, and can apply political pressure on those bodies to act in the interests of Afrikan People. There are Direct Action Groups that excel at organizing mass protests at City Hall, the State House, the Capitol and in the streets of Downtown Anywhere, USA. There are groups of Artists who can get together and plan benefit concerts or create works of visual, musical or performance art to help drive home a message of inspiration, unity and uplift in a time of increasing danger. There are members of Pan-Afrikan Media who hold down radio shows, run entire radio stations, publish newspapers, write books and manage social media sites that can get information out to the People. There are Black Businesses who can provide services and goods to suffering communities and to organizations seeking to respond to crises. There are members ofthe Science Community: health practitioners, such as medical personnel, environmentalists, inventors and mental health professionals, who can respond to crises and see to the mental, physical and community well-being of our People. There are Lawyers who can fight the battles in court, from the repeal of draconian laws to the defense of activists and prisoners who are pursued and prosecuted for their organizing work. There are Grassroots Activists who are needed to get the people together and galvanize them to participate in Mass Actions and the day-to-day community healing that will be needed to recover from crises and to prevent the next ones. And there are Pan-Afrikan Educators, Organizers, Elders and Spiritual Leaders to help us keep all of our roles in historical perspective as we struggle to build the Unity that we all claim we want but have so far failed miserably to bring into existence. I won’t name these organizations, activists and concerned citizens here because I didn’t write this to call them out by name (I respect their work too much for that) and I really don’t need to. They know who they are and how they could participate in a Cooperative Coalition, but they are there and their input is needed to craft a collective solution, now.
And the easiest action of all is to get together and decide to do something about it, together. By ourselves, we accomplish little, which is part of the reason why so few of us even try. But enough of us should be familiar with the cliché “Together Everyone Achieves More” to know what we must do.
The weekend of August 17 and 18 holds particular significance in the Baltimore, Maryland area this year. Baba Charlie Dugger holds an annual observance of Garvey Day at this time, often beginning with a march through several West Baltimore streets and culminating with a Garvey Day celebration in Harlem Park in West Baltimore. This year, the celebration takes on added significance, as a coalition of organizations led by the Black Wolves Youth Scouts and its founder, Bro. Mosiah Fit, are holding the first Red-Black-Green Human Flag Day on the football field at Harlem Park (1500 Edmondson Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21123), starting at 11:00 AM. 
